Watching the Socceroos give such mediocre performances in their last four friendlies means the World Cup afterglow has well and truly faded.
Without the pageantry and excitement of the world’s biggest organised piss-up of the FIFA World Cup that included the buzz of full stadiums and the gaze of the world’s eyes, the Socceroos have fallen into Holger Osieck-like bad habits again.
About a month ago David Gallop’s State of the Game speech coincided with the latest official FIFA World Ranking Tables. And the news was bad, very bad, the Socceroos had fallen down to 84.
With the Asian Cup on the horizon the cynic in me hopes that the announcement by the Football Federation of Australia’s National Plan was not just a big distraction dreamed up by the suits to make us look away from these latest FIFA rankings.
The Socceroos are now ranked just one spot above Cyprus, a country that’s been divided since 1974 and that has a population of just over one million people. Australia is also ranked below countries like Benin, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that’s been ravaged by an ongoing civil war.
Only last week I read a piece on DR Congo player Gabriel Zakuni, who plays for Peterborough United in League One. In an engaging interview the 28-year-old defender Zakuni spoke of hearing gunshots and being in shaking buses during some of DR Congo’s international games.
“During our training session there were gunshots in the background, then during the game [against Libya] there was a military helicopter hovering just above the stadium,” Zakuni said.
I’m a blogger not a fighter but I think Ange Postecoglou should ring up Tony Abbott and ask for the use of military planes to fly over some of the Socceroos training sessions just to give them a bit of DR Congo-style motivation.
After some better than expected performances at the Brazil World Cup, some of the Socceratti started boasting that an Asian Cup victory on home soil was there for the taking.
The Socceroos have plenty of excuses why they played so badly. Sure it’s hard to rise up to and match the performances that the Socceroos gave against Chile and Holland, especially when you’re playing in half empty stadiums in Belgium, London and in the heat of Asia.
Yes, Postecoglou has been using these friendlies to widen the Socceroos selection net, so he can add more depth to the national team’s small pool of players. But talk about a World Cup comedown! I haven’t felt so low since the late 1990s and early noughties when I crawled through a decade of Tuesday’s.
My misspent youth, how I yearn for thee.
The Socceroos post World Cup performances have been pedestrian, lazy and as Alan Partridge says just too “cas” in defence. The midfield is an ongoing saga and the attack is the same old story: a lot of conversation and very little action.
If the Socceroos don’t improve the Asian Cup could have the same ending as another disastrous and embarrassing home football tournament. The Sydney 2000 Olympics, anyone?
Con Stamocostas is a football writer check out episode one of his Australian football podcast with co-host Rob Toddler.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Actually they did better than I expected. I think I tipped 10 goals against, 0 for, and at least 1 send-off. The highlight was the first half against the Netherlands, where the Socceroos played well, and were aided by the fairest refereeing I have seen them receive. Moral victories are an interesting concept. I suppose they would be acceptable if the coach and players received moral dollars and moral training -- and if they should have won but lost on the scoreboard. The Socceroos were well beaten in every game, on and off the board. But I think our "rugged" style of play precludes our claiming a moral high ground.
Realfootball
Guest
It was all good until the Spain game, then it all came down to earth with a very loud thud. We've been firmly there ever since.
Con Stamocostas
Roar Pro
Mos Def it was a victory in morals and bravery. The Moral World Cup. Australia has more of those in their trophy cabinet than any other country
Mister Football
Roar Guru
You did not see the moral victory in losing all three games and shipping 9 goals for the tournament? You are a hard task master.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
"the World Cup afterglow has well and truly faded" -- I'm sorry, but for many of us there was no afterglow -- other than watching a lot of good teams play football -- and Australia was not one of them. Australia had moments where they played well, but every other lowly team had the same experience, and on my viewing, the Socceroos were definitely the worst of the lot. They looked good compared compared to the pre-Cup thrashings they received, but were unable to hold it together against good teams.
Griffo
Roar Guru
I can see, with such a large turnover of experience, why Bresc and Cahill are in the squad. I seem to remember some time ago Jedinak's position was called into question but he popped up with a goal. In any case his captaincy of an EPL club seems to count for him. His stats suggest a bit of Jekyll and Hyde within Ange's needs of leadership and type of player he needs. There is a lot of what if for post-Asian Cup: Bresc I think will hang up his 'roo boots; Cahill Im not so sure unless we win it. But lifting that cup looks a long way off right now. A lot riding on the Japan game but I get a sense there will be more experimenting than what ought to be, which I take as a sign that not enough answers are being given to the questions Ange is asking on squad spots. As I said in John Davidsons article yesterday - going out in the group stage would be a national disaster.
Con Stamocostas
Roar Pro
it's either too much praise or excessive doom and gloom when it comes to the national team isn't it?
crashy
Guest
International sport can be brutal and there isn't much between winning and losing. Unfortunately australians expect our national sporting teams to win all the time which is an unrealistic burden. 1 win in the last 10 games will start to create pressure and scrutiny by a media who love to put the boot in when the pressure is on.
Con Stamocostas
Roar Pro
Unfortunately Realfootball I agree on every point as well. And I too did not even watch the Qatar game. What was the point of playing in the middle east anyway? Socceroos should have been playing those games at home. There should have been an international break and the A League delayed by a week.
Robbie R
Guest
I'm sure many of us would be willing to give Ange plenty of time to build a new team with a long term plan. Unfortunately, the Asian Cup is something we should try to win at all costs. That's why recent performances worry me. I dont think we are favourites for the Asian Cup and this article sums up why.
Realfootball
Guest
Unfortunately Con I agree on every point. I didn't even turn on to watch the Qatar game - the first Roos game I have deliberately not watched since I started watching as a kid in the 74 WC qualifiers. I actually believed we would lose or draw 0-0 and I just could not find it in me to go through it. So, so depressing. Brisbane supporters will recall that Ange's first half season at Brisbane was pretty grim in terms of results. He then brought in 11 new players and we all know what happened the next season. Unfortunately, with the Roos the option of a complete rebuild isn't there and the bottom line is this: our national team is a very mediocre group of players. The clubs they play for tell the story. There's just no getting away from this. When we have players being selected from League 1 for international duty, our coach is in trouble. The situation is complicated by the fact that (and I know that many people will disagree with me) that Ange has uncharacteristically shied from taking the bull by the horns: Cahill and Jedinak are the two major impediments in terms of playing the kind of football Ange wants the team to play, but both are now, it seems, undroppable. Cahill's WC goal ensured that, as does Jedinak's presence in the EPL. Cahill is not and never was a striker, and his charismatic personality has masked the deficiencies of a very limited player. Jedinak is statistically one of the worst players in possession of the ball in the EPL. The stats alone suggest that he is exactly the kind of player who should not be playing in the heart of Ange's midfield. How can a team play a passing game when the key central midfielder has a pass completion rate of 66%? It simply isn't possible. The sum of all fears at the moment is the humiliation of a group stage exit at the Asian Cup. On performances, as well as results, this now looms as a real possibility. Let us all hope it does not come to pass. But there's no escaping the fact that if indeed there is alchemy possible in this group of players, Ange has not so far found it and the clock is one minute from midnight.